A curricular innovation is being implemented that involves the introductory and intermediate courses offered during the first two years in the chemistry curriculum. There are three critical components to this project: l) to integrate both inorganic and organic chemistry throughout the first two years of introductory and intermediate chemistry; 2) to fashion a laboratory sequence that promotes student understanding of the qualitative and multidisciplinary aspects of chemistry, including the use of modern instrumentation at the introductory level; and, 3) to create lecture and laboratory texts for use with such innovations. A unique advantage of this sequence, absent in the "traditional," "organic first," and "two cycle" approaches, is the overall matching of topic development to student ability over the two-year sequence. This approach builds from an empirical basis those unifying concepts of chemistry throughout a two-year sequence. By removing the barrier separating organic from inorganic, both major and non-major chemistry students will be exposed to a more integrated view of chemistry, and will have fundamental concepts reinforced with the widest possible variety of chemical examples.
